FILICES. 29 



three specimens, all of them exactly alike excepting a small difference 

 in size, and I could find none of the common form of the plant 

 growing near them.' Mr. Cruickshank sent me a drawing, which I 

 did not at the time recognise as representing the present species 

 (B. rutaceum). A carefully accurate engraving of this will be found 

 at p. 324, Newman's Brit. Ferns, ed. iii. p. 321." 



Of this drawing Mr. Moore says, " Dr. Milde's own illustrations of 

 B. lanceolatum, including Fl. Dan. T. 18, fig. dext. are most nearly 

 accordant with the figure of the Dundee j^lant, which should 

 probably bear the name of var. lanceolatum instead of rutaceum, 

 hitherto applied to it." (Moore, * Nat. Print. Brit. Ferns,' 8vo. ed. 

 vol. ii. p. 332.) 



Under B. lanceolatum Dr. Milde says, " Newm. Hist, of Brit. 

 Ferns, 1854, figura pag. 324, ad B. lanceolatum pertinere videtur " 

 (Milde, <Fil. Europ.'p. 197). 



I do not think there can be any doubt that Mr. Newman's figure 

 here referred to represents B. lanceolatum, and not B. rutaceum ; 

 neither have I any doubt that Dr. Milde is right in considering 

 that B. Lunaria, B. rutaceum, and B. lanceolatum are three distinct 

 species. Unfortunately no further information can be obtained about 

 the plant from the Sands of Barry, nor can any of Mr. Cruickshank's 

 three specimens be traced to their present owners, so far as I can 

 discover. No one else has found it there, still B. lanceolatum seems 

 to have a better claim to be included in the British lists than 

 B. rutaceum." 



OEDER XCIY.— F I L I C E S. 



Herbs, rarely trees, very rarely annuals, sometimes with creeping 

 buried or exposed rootstocks, in which case the leaves or fronds are 

 few and distant, in other cases with a stem (caudex) or in Tree-ferns 

 a trunk, producing a circle of fronds like the feathers of a shuttle- 

 cock. Fronds very various in shape and division, usually supported 

 on a stalk (stipes) which is continued as a midrib through the expanded 

 part of the frond, and there is termed the rachis. SjDorangia borne 

 on the back or margin of the fronds, usually attached to the veins, 

 each formed from a single epidermal cell, opening transversely 

 or longitudinally, with a more or less complete vertical or trans- 

 verse or apical ring of thickened tissue (annulus). The sporangia 

 are collected into groups termed sori, which are round, oblong, 



